Page 44 of Puck to the Heart
My suitcase remained on the plane, but I needed to get away. My heart lay on the ground at Ash’s feet, and he might as well have stomped on it with his silence.
“Olivia.” His voice rang with gravel.
Rain, a real, hard rain, fell. Slowly at first, the first few drops pinged on the hoods and roofs of cars until it multiplied into a deluge, quickly drenching us.
“You’re sure? About… me?” Ash stared, blinking water out of his annoyingly long lashes.
“Yes.”
“I have wanted you since we met. I want you in every sense of the word. I want every part you. I want you to bemine. And God, Olivia, all sour and sweet and maybe a little bitter, I fucking want all of it. Because you drive me crazy. You have been in my head since the first night.” A strangled sound came out of my mouth as he took a step closer. “You have to know you have all of me. Please don’t run away from me again.”
Something in me soared. “I don’t know how to do this, but I’ll try for you. If there’s one thing I’m good at, it’s learning new things.”
He took another step closer until only a few inches separated us. “We can learn together, Barnes.” His forehead dropped, pressing to mine as he closed the distance, the soft ends of his hair tickling my temples.
The crack in my chest felt smaller, like golden light poured through slowly, healing the breaks.
“Everyone I’ve ever been with has told me I’m too much.” I closed my eyes against the increasing downpour. “For you, it feels like not enough, and I don’t know how to find the balance.”
“Everything about you is perfect.Youare what I want. All of you.” With a fluid movement, he tucked me beneath his chin, and, despite the chill, heat radiated from him, and I reveled in it. Reveled in warmth and safety andAsh. Trails of warm tears mingled with the cold drops as I clung to him.
“You’re freezing. Again. Get in the car.” Headlights flashed as he clicked the car unlocked, and I discovered I was shivering.
Inside, he cranked the heat high, swiping water out of his eyes and pushing hair out of his face.
“What do we do now?” Asking took all of my remaining energy. Confessions were more draining than I realized.
“We should get your suitcase, and then you’re coming home with me. Nana’s out for the weekend.”
“My car is here.”
“I’ll get it back to you. Come with me, please? I had a shitty night.”
“What happened? I saw you and Allen get into it.” I recalled gasping loud enough for the bartender to check on me at the last punch.
“Allen took offense to me disagreeing with one of his plays and things got…heated.”
“Heated is an understatement, given the black eye. Are you alright?”
For the first time since I fled the hotel bar, I saw the corner of his mouth lift in a partial smile. “Allen hits like a ten-year-old with an iron deficiency. Coach reamed me out over it later, though. We’re supposed to keep our personal shit off the ice, and Allen is still pissed about me being his competition. And I didn’t have… Anyway, I’m fine.”
Me. He didn’t have me to talk to afterward.Shit. “Doesn’t look like it.” I peered closer at the bruise on his cheek, resisting the urge to reach out and touch it.
“I didn’t realize you were there.”
“No, I watched at a bar with some random guy.”
“What guy?” he growled.
We were together for three whole seconds, and he was already jealous? Was I maybe atinybit gratified that he cared enough to get mad? “He might as well have been a clone of Brad. Relax, Ash. I sat down at the bar for dinner, and he came up beside me and started talking.”
“I hate that.”
“Imagine how I feel.”
“You’re too nice. You should tell them to fuck off.”
“Sometimes pretending to listen has fewer repercussions than telling them to fuck off,” I said bitterly.
